About this title: Barbara Halliwell, on a grant at Oxford, receives an unexpected package-a centuries-old memoir by a Korean crown princess. An appropriate gift indeed for her impending trip to Seoul, but Barbara doesn't know who sent it. On the plane, she avidly reads the memoir, a story of great intrigue as well as tragedy. The Crown Princess Hyegyong recounts in extraordinary detail the ways of the Korean court and confesses the family dramas that left her childless and her husband dead by his own hand. When a Korean man Barbara meets at her hotel offers to guide her to some of the haunts of the crown ...
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Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Date Published: 2005-10-03
ISBN-13:9780156032704ISBN:0156032708
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Date Published: 2005-10-03
ISBN-13:9780156032704ISBN:0156032708
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
"More like two books in one, this book joins the stories of the nameless Korean Crown Princess and Babs, a professor who reads the memoirs of the former and is deeply touched.
I ended up reading this while in a Chinese Art History class, which made it a lot more relevant to my schooling than I expected. It was a little flimsy in plot but written well enough that I didn't care. I liked the princess's part more than Babs, but even so I loved it all."
"This book didn't really pick up until the last 75 pages. The first half follows the story of the Korean Crown Princess in the eighteenth century. It's an interesting--and, I gather, true--story, but it's narrated by the dead princess in contemporary times. Apparently, you are free to read in the after-life--that's good news, I suppose--so her telling of the historical story is flavored by works and philosophies from later time periods. It almost seems like a short cut for the writer, so she didn't have to filter out any of her modern ideas. The second half follows a scholar in contemporary times, who reads the Crown Princess's memoirs. It's not her field of study, so it's not like she has any special insight or uncovers any additional information in her research. I didn't really get how the two stories were connected . . . but the book gets pretty interesting when the scholar has a torrid affair during a conference in Korea. So, there's that."
"The Red Queen is told in two parts. The first is about a Korean princess from the 1700s and is loosely based on her memoirs. The second part is the fictional story of an academic from England, "Babs" who is somewhat haunted by the ghost of the Korean princess after having read her memoirs.
The Red Queen lives in tumultuous times and her memoirs are a justification of her actions and the actions of her family. A lot happens in the first part of the book and I found myself drawn into it.
The second part of the book featuring Babs has some promise but doesn't truly deliver. The Red Queen is eventually satisfied by Bab's actions but I did not find myself caring too much about what she did."
"Why do descriptions of this book focus on the second part? Are they scared no-one will buy it if they read a summary of the first half? I found the first half intriguing - the story of the princess, her culture and her time was not one with which I am familiar and I must remember to add at least one of the versions of her memoirs listed in the bibliography to my wishlist before I parcel this up to send on. I also liked the idea of a ghost continuing to learn after her death, reflecting on her life from the perspective of her new knowledge, and determined that her story is to be told.
So far so good, but then we get to part two. I tried to see the parallels between the two stories, really I did but, apart from the unsubtle mad husband and dead child, they were well hidden. The take-over of Babs by the princess was thwarted by the presence of the former's academic hero and it seems that the author too got carried away with this - the poor ghost gets pushed out of the way by a bit of conference wish-fulfillment that's ending, although sad, is selfishly gratifying for Barbara.
As far as I'm concerned the third, and weakest, part of the book starts with Bab's return to London. While I understood her feeling responsible for the Chinese orphan, jointly adopting her with Jan's widow was a decision that had little narrative support let alone credibility. There are hints that the princess pushed her hand but again, her voice is curiously silent on the matter. The child herself is somewhat sinister, and the postmodern conclusion laughable. Has the ghost fulfilled her aim by getting Margaret to write the book, or is there more to come via Chen Jianyi?
The premise of this book is so much better than the execution and, while I didn't not enjoy reading it (to use one of Barbara's favoured double negatives) I would have much preferred to hear more from the enigmatic ghost."
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